A Life Less Ordinary (41 page)

“I’m
glad you agreed to meet without the lawyers to go over the draft settlement,”
he said.

Daisy
shrugged.  “As angry as I am with you, Hub, you do still love your kids, even
if you don’t show it all that often.”  She raised a placating hand.  “I’m
stating my opinion, not a proven fact or even a judgement.  Okay?”

Hub
gave her a sullen nod as he settled on the couch.

“Besides,
the settlement isn’t complicated.  I’m not asking for alimony,” Daisy
continued, sitting down beside him, “only child support – and you can pay that
directly to the kids.  Whatever cash or investments we have can be split down
the middle, and then I’ll pay you half whatever the house is worth out of
that.  It’s pretty simple.”

Hub
nodded.  “Surprisingly simple, considering we were together for twenty-four
years.”

Daisy
smiled briefly.  “It’s not like we lived an extravagant lifestyle,” she said
drily.  “Let’s face it, we were pretty conservative...once we started living
together.”

Hub
paused frowning, then he grinned, and the years dropped from his face.  Daisy
blinked as, for a moment, the man she’d fallen in love with looked back at her.

“We
had some good times though, didn’t we?” Hub said almost wistfully, his grin
dimming.

Daisy
nodded.  “We had a lot of good times.”  She looked at the small bar nestled in
the corner of the living room.   She laughed.  “Remember the time we crashed
that wine and cheese party at the university art gallery?”

Hub
frowned before remembrance dawned.  “And we each stuck two bottles of wine
under our coats to smuggle them back home?”

“And
one of yours fell out?  Right in front of the security guard!”

Daisy
laughed as Hub chuckled and shook his head.

“Good
thing you and Manny knew him.”

“Although
I would have enjoyed watching the strip search he threatened to do to you.”

Hub
groaned.  “He laughed at me every time he saw me after that.”

“Hey,
at least he didn’t catch us in the storage room that time.”

“No,
that was a different security guard – which, of course, made it all better!”
Hub said drily, rolling his eyes.  His expression softened.  “It was a good
time,” he agreed.

Daisy
shifted uncomfortably, dropping her eyes to the manila envelope in her hand. 
“Well, that’s all in the past now,” she sighed.

“When
did it start to go wrong?” Hub asked sadly.

Daisy
shot him a suddenly annoyed look.  “I don’t know – you tell me.  I’m not the
one who had an affair! 
Why
did you do that?”

Hub
shrugged helplessly.  “I don’t know.  I guess I was feeling...old.  And she was
young and pretty and interested – in me and everything I did.”  He sighed and
looked at his hands.  “You haven’t been interested in me or anything about me
for...” he shrugged again, “ever, it seems.”

Daisy
reared back.  “That’s not true!”

Hub
raised his hands.  “I’m not accusing you – I’m trying to tell you what I felt. 
And I felt like you didn’t care anymore, and she was...” he shrugged
helplessly.

“There?”
Daisy asked drily.

“Yes
– in a way.” 

Daisy
sat in thoughtful silence then said, “I almost feel sorry for her.”

Hub
glanced at her.  “It’s over, you know.  Me and her.”

“No,
I didn’t know,” Daisy replied quietly.

“Daisy
-”

The
shrill ring of Daisy’s phone interrupted him.  Daisy glanced at it, then
frowned as she answered it.

“Hello? 
Manny?  You’re
where
?”

* * * * *

Manny
heard Daisy and Rebecca long before they rushed into the holding cells area. 
They hurried to the bars of Manny’s cell with a hasty glance at Zeke in the
adjoining one.  Zeke and Manny rose to their feet and moved to the bars.

“Hey,
guys,” Manny said.

Daisy
grabbed the bars with a death grip.  “Don’t ‘hey guys’ me!  I can
not
believe you ended up in jail!”

Rebecca
leaned in.  “What’s the story?  The cop at the front desk was pretty pissed.”

Manny
rolled her eyes and glanced at Zeke.  “That was Zeke.  We didn’t do anything
really bad, and if Zeke hadn’t pissed him off I’m almost positive he would have
let us off with a warning.”

Zeke
said, “I would like to say – for the record – that this is all her fault.”

Manny
rolled her eyes again and shook her head at him.  “Thanks,” she said drily.

Daisy
levelled a death glare in Zeke’s direction.  “I don’t care what you say – I’m
blaming you anyway!”

“Hey!”
Zeke protested.

Rebecca
lowered her voice with a grin, “Come on, Manny – spill!”

Manny
ignored her.  “Are you gonna be able to get us out of here?” she asked Daisy.

“That
depends on what you’ve done!” Daisy snapped.

“Well,
we didn’t kill anybody!”

“What’s
this ‘we’ business?” Zeke protested.  “I’m an innocent bystander!”

“Oh,
please!” Manny said.  “You drove the getaway car!”

“
We didn’t get away,
remember?” Zeke snapped.  “We didn’t even get to the car!”

Rebecca
gasped, her eyes wide.  “Oh, my God – you robbed a bank?”

Daisy’s
eyes widened, too.  “That – that – that’s a lot of time...”

“Oh,
for – we didn’t rob a bank!” Manny sighed.

“I
didn’t do anything!” Zeke said loudly.  “I wasn’t there!”

All
three women yelled, “Shut up!”

“Well,
I wasn’t...,” Zeke pouted.

“It
was indecent exposure!” Manny said loudly, “and Zeke wouldn’t have been
arrested at all if he hadn’t mouthed off to the cop.”

“I
think it was my question about what I had to do to get him to let us off with a
warning,” Zeke muttered.

“Yeah,”
Manny said drily, “he apparently took it the wrong way – as in, an offer of a
bribe.  Of...one kind or another.”

Rebecca
and Daisy ooh’d, then Rebecca said, “Indecent exposure?  Manny...” she sniffed,
feigning tears, “I’m so proud!

“Stop
encouraging her!” Zeke snapped.  “Honestly!”

Daisy
shook her head.  “On the one hand, I’m with Rebecca.  On the other hand, I
agree with Zeke – and that can never be good.”

“Hey!”

“I
heard about your reaction to Brett,” Daisy said, her index finger raised in
warning.

Rebecca
laughed and winked at him.  “You should see us when we don’t like you.  Which
brings us to this...Ted...he deliberately set you up?”

“It
appears that way,” Manny sighed.  “But he’s only sixteen.  I think it was just
a prank that got out of hand.”

“Yeah,”
Daisy said grimly, “a prank that put you in jail and separated you from your
belongings for a least forty-eight hours.”

“This
seems pretty elaborate just to steal some petty cash,” Zeke said skeptically.

“Or
maybe he’s running another type of scam,” Rebecca said.  “Now.  Where do we pay
the bail money?”

“
Probably the cop at the
front desk,” Manny sighed.  “I’ll never get a job again,” she groaned, leaning
her forehead against the bars, “especially with a conviction for indecent
exposure!”

“
Don’t sweat it,”
Rebecca assured her, “you can always sell real estate.”

Daisy
waved away their comments.  “We’ll worry about all that later.  First we have
to get you out of jail.  Then we find out what the scam is – and
then
we
show Zeke how we treat the people we
don’t
like.”

~~~~~

The
four them walked into the hotel room, and Rebecca tossed her purse and
overnight bag heavily on one of the beds.

“All
right,” she said, planting her hands firmly on her hips, “now that we have some
privacy, let’s talk about how we’re going to make this Ted pay.”

“And
how we can find out what the little worm was up to while you were in jail,”
Daisy added, dropping her own purse and overnight bag on the second bed.

“Did
you bring your laptop?” Manny asked Daisy.  Daisy gestured at her overnight bag
and Manny dug it out as the others settled on the beds and continued talking.

“I’ll
call Jackson in about an hour,” Rebecca said.  “He’ll be finished with his
meetings by then.  He can tell us how to tell if your laptops have been
tampered with.”

Daisy
nodded.  “I’ll call Max; he can find out if your credit cards have been used at
all.”

“I
can check online -” Zeke protested.

“Yeah,
but charges don’t always show up right away,” Daisy said.

“True.”

Rebecca
said, “And then there’s whether your ID has been used online for other purposes. 
Jackson can help us there, too.  Like if something malicious was done to
somebody else, using your ID.”

“Well,
I think that’s definitely part of it,” Manny said in a high, strained voice.

The
others looked over at her.  She was pale, with bright spots of red on her
cheeks, her eyes wide as she stared at the computer screen.

Zeke
frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Ted
sent a link to all my friends on Facebook, telling them to check out a certain
website,” Manny said slowly, her voice brittle with rage, “but I’m not sure Ted
is the one being vindictive.”

Manny
turned the laptop around to show everyone the screen.  Zeke’s jaw dropped as he
recognized the
What Women Want
website – and his blog.

~~~~~

Ted
glanced up from his comic book and flushed a dark red as Manny walked into the
dining room of the bed and breakfast and headed in his direction.  She paused
on the opposite side of the table and considered him expressionlessly.

Ted
brushed his long hair back and nervously met her eyes.

She
considered him silently, then nodded at the table.

“May
I sit?” she asked gently.

Ted
hesitated, then jerked a nod.  Manny sat down, then leaned forward, her hands
clasped loosely on the table in front of her.

“You...uh...you
set me up,” she said.

Ted
did a combination of a shrug and a nod.  “Yeah.  I arranged for you to be
arrested.”

“How?”

“Ira’s
been wanting me to do a favour for him for the last few months.  So, I sent you
to that beach, and then Zeke, and asked Ira to ‘arrest’ the two of you –
trespassing, if nothing else – and to keep you in prison for a couple of days.”

Manny
frowned.  “
Why?
”

“Because
I needed some time to figure out if you two were who I thought you were.”

Manny
nodded without surprise.  “The people in the
In Praise of Older Women
blog.”

“Yeah. 
I mean, I was pretty sure, but...I wanted to be sure before telling you.  Zeep
– the screen name for the author of the blogs -  was pretty clear his travelling
companion had no idea he was writing about her.  If it was you...I just thought
you should know.”

“Why?”
Manny asked again.

“Because...because
Zeep’s sometimes not very nice – and now that I’ve met you, I know you are, and
you’re just trying to have fun.  Zeke’s nice too, but...well, if Zeke and Zeep
are one and the same, then you should know.  You should know what’s
really
in it for him.”

Manny
swallowed with difficulty, her eyes on her hands.  “I’d...wondered.  I read a
couple of the early blogs – he was...pretty brutal.”

“Yeah,”
Ted said, “his ‘thing’ is snarky coolness, but he’s been, well...mellowing
isn’t the right word, exactly, but giving you some grudging respect.  And
genuine liking.  He defends you a lot in the comments, but he also needs to
keep his readership, and most people are reading to find out how he’s going to
react to whatever you do next.  His latest blog was posted yesterday morning –
and it just confirmed that Zeep and Zeke are one and the same.”

Manny
shook her head.  “The blog’s pretty popular, huh?”

“It
went viral a few weeks ago, yeah.”

“You
sound...mixed.  Like you dislike him and admire him at the same time.”

Ted
shrugged again.  “Hey – he’s making money on the Internet – that’s impressive. 
And I enjoy – enjoyed – his blogs.  At least until I actually met you.  He’s a
good writer, and funny.  But – you – you’re not clueless, or an object of fun,
or pity.  And you deserve to know who you’re travelling with.”

Manny
sighed.  “I could have done without the couple days in jail.  Or having my
sister and friend cough up bail money!  You could have just told me.”

“I
had no proof.  I had to get my hands on Zeke’s laptop – uninterrupted – to find
evidence.”